National Parliament|Photo by Obaj Okuj|04-06-2024

The National Legislative Assembly on Tuesday adjourned a planned sitting aimed at addressing the pressing issue of hunger in the country over the absence two ministers.

Parliament had summoned five cabinet ministers to provide insights into the looming hunger crisis in South Sudan, and account for the utilization of national resources, including oil, minerals, and non-oil revenue.

These include the Ministers of Finance and Planning, Petroleum, Agriculture and Food Security, Trade and Industry, as well as the Minister of Humanitarianism and Disaster Management.

However, at the commencement of the sitting, Speaker Jamma Nunu Kumba announced that the Ministers of Finance and Trade were absent.

She clarified that the Minister of Petroleum left for Sudan while the Minister of Trade and Industry was elsewhere abroad.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security arrived at parliament with only an electronic copy of her report, contrary to parliamentary regulations which require a hard copy for members to follow during presentations.

“These three ministers are related – Agriculture, Trade, Petroleum and Finance, the majority of them are not here only one.

“Therefore, we will be wasting time, and again we will be calling them. That’s why we should just adjourned the sitting so that the Minister of Agriculture can go and print the documents for us because now the focus should be on agriculture. The President has called on people to focus on agriculture.

She then suggested that the sitting is adjourned to a later date for better preparedness and fuller participation, which the MPs all agreed to.”

“If we are able to cultivate through the support of Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, we will not be talking about importing food even. So, for this reason – which you all agree with me, the sitting is adjourned,” she said.